STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Volvo’s (VOLVb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) CEO Olof Persson appeared to have won some breathing space on Thursday after recent criticism of the Swedish truck maker’s performance but he needs to show progress over the next year to placate investors.

Volvo’s chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg on Wednesday denied a newspaper report that he was actively looking for a replacement for Persson, who has led a drive to boost profitability since taking over in 2011.

STOCKHOLM, March 19 (Reuters) – After shifting much of its
production to low-cost countries, Electrolux is using
motor industry ideas to cut costs and give it the flexibility to
succeed in a fiercely competitive home appliances business.

The Swedish group has called an end to major plant moves out
of Europe and North America. Now it says it is comfortable with
making 30 percent of its washing machines, fridges and ovens in
higher cost countries, provided a productivity push succeeds in
ensuring plants there remain competitive.

STOCKHOLM, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Geely-owned carmaker Volvo Car
Group said on Thursday its 2014 operating profit rose 17.5
percent in its best year of sales to date as rapid expansion in
China and recovery in Europe took the sting off lingering
weakness for the brand in the United States.

Volvo sold a record 465,866 cars last year but is still far
from its goal of selling 800,000 cars in 2020 and making real
inroads into a premium market dominated by German heavyweights
such as Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

STOCKHOLM, Feb 15 (Reuters) – When Swedish artist Lars Vilks
drew the Prophet Mohammad as a dog in 2007, the cartoon – which
earned him death threats from radical Islamists and may have
triggered a weekend attack in Copenhagen – was not intended to
provoke Muslims.

Its aim was to challenge political correctness in the art
world, he said after the sketch sparked an uproar in the Islamic
world, and he had been naive to think its effect would be
limited.

STOCKHOLM, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Truck maker Volvo
raised its outlook for truck markets on both sides of the North
Atlantic on Thursday, after an expected fourth-quarter rise in
core earnings fizzled in the face of weak demand for
construction equipment.

The group, locked in battle with Daimler and
Volkswagen’s truck brands for market leadership, is
facing strong U.S. demand for trucks but also a deep downturn
for its construction gear arm in a slowing China.

STOCKHOLM, Jan 28 (Reuters) – SKF, the world’s
biggest bearings maker, is to cut about 1,500 staff as its new
boss, only weeks into his job, takes action to rein in costs
across the Swedish company, sending its shares up nearly 4
percent.

SKF, whose bearings are found in products ranging from
skateboards to wind turbines, said on Wednesday the brunt of the
staff cuts would be carried out this year and yield 1.2 billion
crowns of savings by the end of next year.

STOCKHOLM, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Home appliances maker
Electrolux AB has raised its growth forecast for
European markets this year after cost cuts powered it to a
bigger than expected rise in quarterly earnings, sending its
shares to a record high.

The Sweden-based group, which makes fridges and dish washers
under brands such as AEG and Zanussi as well as its own name,
saw cost cuts in 2014 from years of plant closures kick in to
fortify earnings amid tepid demand outside a firmly expanding
U.S. market.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s far-right is gambling its political future in pitching the country into snap elections, calculating disaffection with established parties and fears over immigration can further its meteoric rise from a pariah-like obscurity to mainstream power.

But voters may yet punish the Sweden Democrats, who want to cut asylum seekers by 90 percent, for tipping the balance in a vote over the budget on Wednesday and forcing a Social Democrat-Green coalition to call polls after only 2 months. Turmoil is an alien spectacle in Swedish political culture.

STOCKHOLM, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Sweden called its first snap
election for more than half a century in March after a far-right
party helped defeat the centre-left minority government’s first
budget in parliament on Wednesday.

Formed after a fractured September election that handed the
anti-immigration Sweden Democrats the balance of power, Prime
Minister Stefan Lofven’s Social Democrat-Green coalition has
been widely viewed as Sweden’s weakest government in decades.

STOCKHOLM, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Jacob Wallenberg, the
58-year-old head of one of Europe’s most enduring family
dynasties, is trying to work out how the empire controlling much
of Sweden’s economy could look with a woman or someone without
the family name at the helm.

Roughly 30 members of the sixth generation, aged between 15
and 30, are contenders to see if they could one day run
Wallenberg’s Investor holding company and several foundations
with major stakes in Electrolux, Atlas Copco and Ericsson.